World's Largest Island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island Seen on Google Earth

By Natalie Wolchover |
January 24, 2012 05:19pm ET

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For years, trivia buffs thought the world's largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island was a tiny island in a crater lake on Volcano Island in Lake Taal on the Philippine island of Luzon. However, exhaustive trolling of Google Earth has proven otherwise. The distinction is now known to belong to a narrow, four-acre strip of land in Canada that has probably never been visited by humans.

Located at exactly 69.793° N, 108.241° W, the nameless island lolls across the center of a small lake, which is itself encapsulated by a slightly larger island. That resides inside one of a series of long finger lakes located 75 miles inland from the southern coast of Victoria Island, a land feature in Northern Canada that is the eighth largest island in the world. Watch the video to zoom through these layers.

According to The Daily Traveler, it is likely that no human has ever set foot on Canada's tiny "sub-sub-sub-island," considering the fact that Victoria Island, though bigger than the state of Idaho, is home to less than 2,000 people.

With its mangled roof of spidery islands and lakes, Canada holds several island-related distinctions. It is home to the world's largest island-in-a-lake (Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron), for example, as well as the world's largest lake-on-an-island (Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island). The world's largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island, however, is the volcanic island of Samosir in the middle of Lake Toba in Sumatra.

Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012. She hold a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Follow Natalie on Google+.